Relative permeability

Ismailova D.
Effective phase saturation
Wyllie and Gardner Correlation
Wyllie and Gardner Correlation (1958)

when one relative permeability is available

Torcaso and Wyllie Correlation (1958)
 Pirson’s Correlation (1958)

From petrophysical considerations, Pirson (1958) derived generalized

relationships for determining the wetting and nonwetting phase relative
permeability for both imbibition and drainage processes. The generalized
expressions are applied for water-wet rocks.

The above expression is valid for both the imbibition and drainage
processes.
Pirson’s Correlation (1958)
 Problem 1

Generate the drainage relative permeability data for an unconsolidated

well-sorted sand by using the Wyllie and Gardner method. Assume the
following critical saturation values:

Problem 2

Resolve Problem 1 by using Pirson’s correlation for the water-oil

system.
Corey’s Method (1954)

Corey (1954) proposed a simple mathematical expression for generating

the relative permeability data of the gas-oil system. The approximation
is good for drainage processes, i.e., gas-displacing oil.
 Problem 3

Use Corey’s approximation to generate the gas-oil relative permeability for a

formation with a connate water saturation of 0.25.
 Relative Permeability from Capillary Pressure
Data

Rose and Bruce (1949) showed that capillary pressure pc is a measure

of the fundamental characteristics of the formation and could also be
used to predict the relative permeabilities. Based on the concepts of tortuosity,
Wyllie and Gardner (1958) developed the following mathematical
expression for determining the drainage water-oil relative permeability
from capillary pressure data:
 Relative Permeability from Capillary Pressure
Data
Wyllie and Gardner also presented two expressions for generating the
oil and gas relative permeabilities in the presence of the connate water
saturation. The authors considered the connate water as part of the rock
matrix to give: